Anti-Crime

A city that is victimized by high levels of crime and social disorder, and fear of crime, will fail to maximize potential in terms of economic development and neighborhoods. Therefore, a major focus of the Lancaster Alliance continues to be its anti-crime initiatives.

Initiatives of the Lancaster Alliance include:

• More Money for Police. The Alliance led a 3-year, $3 million dollar initiative that hired more police and support personnel. Progress reports were issued to stakeholders every four months.
• Helping to Fund a new City Position to Fight Problem Properties.  The Alliance conceptualized and then helped to fund a city-based initiative to better coordinate attacks on problem properties.   This cooperation includes city departments, Code Enforcement, Fire and the Police, along with the County District Attorney. 
• Encouraging Greater Government Efficiencies. A financially troubled city is unable to meet public safety and neighborhood needs. The Alliance helped to leverage funds for a comprehensive analysis of city governmental efficiencies.
• Introducing New Approaches. The Alliance has led or supported a variety of projects at pivotal times. As the Crime Commission was developing underpinning philosophy, the Alliance commissioned the authors of "Fixing Broken Windows" to help the Crime Commission.
• Controlling Blighting Buildings.  The Alliance has purchased several downtown buildings for redevelopment.  Properties are then conveyed to benevolent owners such as the City Redevelopment Authority.

Community

The Lancaster Alliance has led or supported a variety of community-based initiatives that enhance the quality of life in the City.  These initiatives include:

• Clipper Magazine Stadium. The Alliance helped to identify the site and assemble the property for downtown's Clipper Magazine Stadium.
• Improvement of Public Spaces. The Alliance has provided input to traffic calming projects in the support of neighborhood and business objectives and participated in neighborhood projects, including lighting.  This work has included funding and commissioning a study from a traffic engineer suggesting that two-way alignment of several city streets was possible and desirable.  More recently, the Alliance recommended to East King Improvement District a traffic calming program that has significantly reduced speeding in this city neighborhood.  The Alliance secured a State grant to develop streetscape enhancement guidelines that were ultimately approved and are now being implemented by the City in a four-phase streetscape improvement program.  The Alliance raised funds for the planning and implementation of both the citywide vehicular wayfinding program and the pedestrian wayfinding program. 
• Improvement of Public Education. This initiative is focused on supporting School District of Lancaster literacy goals. Over the past eleven years, the Book Challenge has provided over 30,000 new books to school libraries and has raised over $700,000 for special book collections and literacy programs.
• Neighborhoods – Since sponsoring a “neighborhood summit” in 2001, the Alliance has sustained neighborhood involvement through a variety of projects. Most recently, the Alliance has helped to implement a series of pride block tasks designed to help build leadership and neighbor invovlement. These include two lighting projects on East King and East Chestnut Streets.

• Early Staffing for First Fridays.  LancasterARTS took early responsibility for First Fridays, distributing maps, lists of open galleries and restaurants, trolley schedules, and special street entertainment. A similar model is currently followed.

The Lancaster Alliance has helped to create new organizations when they are needed to improve the community’s quality of life.  There are many groups that create initiatives to address specific community issues and needs. Often, their solution is to establish a new nonprofit organization. The Alliance provides organizational support to fledgling groups so that they may explore whether or not the community really needs a new organization or whether the initiative meets a short term need or can be more successfully housed in an established organization. This helps to reduce the number of groups competing for the same resources. The Alliance is currently assisting Lancaster Downtowners in exploring its long term viability.

Some projects will develop into independent organizations with a solid ongoing mission.. Other projects will be successful in addressing the immediate need and will dissolve the initiative accordingly. An example of this is Safe Passage. Other initiatives will be housed in existing organizations. Keep Lancaster Beautiful is such an initiative.